Verizon: Nondiscrimination, Prioritization Proposals Are Stronger Than Title II

A top Verizon spokesman said Wednesday that the company's proposals on nondiscrimination and the presumption against
prioritization on any Internet network connections were stronger than the FCC could achieve through Title II reclassification.

That came in a blog posting by Verizon Executive Director Media Relations, David Fish,
the latest move in the ongoing network neutrality parry and thrust between industry and advocacy groups.

Fish was responding to criticisms of Verizon's network neutrality policy accord with Google from Free Press.

In a joint statement earlier this month, Verizon and
Google said they support an enforceable prohibition on disrimination or prioritizing any content on the Internet. But it also left open the
possibility of prioritizing content on differentiated broadband services that are not delivered over the public Internet,
and said the principles should not be applied to the "different" and rapidly changing mobile marketplace.

Free Press took issue with that differentiated services proposal and the wireless carveout. While Fish did not address the
wireless carveout, he suggests such differentiated servcies are a way to insure that medical monitoring, smart grid applications and other national purposes get the bandwidth they need.

The FCC has encouraged industry players to try and come up with compromise language for legislation that would clarify its
ability to oversee broadband access, openness and deployment. That could be an alternative to the FCC's current proposal to
reclassify broadband transmissions under some Title II regulations. Fish made that point in his blog.
"Verizon and Google are not policymakers," he said, "[b]ut we were encouraged by real policymakers to see what two companies
at near opposite ends of the issue could come up with to help bridge the gap."

While
FCC-hosted talks on targeted legislative language have ended, most of
the same parties, including Verizon, AT&T and the National Cable
& Telecommunications Association, have continued talking.